Quayle Vows Iraqi Troops Will Be Gone in ’91

Vice President Dan Quayle, wrapping up a New Year’s handshaking tour that brought him into contact with royal leaders and U.S. troops, declared Tuesday that 1991 will not end with Iraqi troops still in Kuwait.

Quayle also visited Kuwait’s exiled emir and expressed the need to add increased financial support to the tens of billions of dollars required to maintain America’s massive military presence in the Persian Gulf.

The vice president started the day with a visit to the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy, telling about 5,000 sailors that there is a strong chance they will go to war.

“Saddam Hussein should understand that we will succeed in expelling him,” said Quayle, standing on the ship’s 4 1/2-acre hangar deck. The ship was docked in the port city of Jidda after a four-month patrol in the Red Sea.

Striking the same theme in one appearance after another to soldiers, sailors and fighter pilots, Quayle said any military engagement with Iraq would be “quick, massive and decisive.”

“You will do your job and go home to your loved ones,” Quayle said, sparking hoots and yells from the troops.

“Last year, 1990, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. This year, 1991, Saddam Hussein will leave Kuwait, and we hope that he’ll choose to leave peacefully. But if necessary, he will be made to leave by force,” Quayle said.

After leaving the aircraft carrier, the vice president and his entourage of 50 drove to an air base in southwestern Saudi Arabia, where they met several thousand Air Force pilots and flight crew members.

“Morale is sky high. We are ready, willing and able to do what has to be done,” Quayle said.

After visiting several military units, Quayle’s group hopped a C-130 transport plane to the western city of Taif, where he visited the exiled emir of Kuwait, Sheik Jabbar al Ahmed al Sabah, in his mountain retreat at a Sheraton Hotel.

The two spoke for 25 minutes, and an Administration official later said Quayle thanked the emir for his financial support of Operation Desert Shield and suggested that more money will be needed. The official said the emir voiced no objections.

Neither Quayle nor the emir spoke to reporters afterward.

The visit followed a similar call Sunday on Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd, in which Quayle told the Saudis that they will need to contribute more money to support the deployment of U.S. troops.

The Kuwaiti government-in-exile has already pledged $5 billion to the U.S. military effort plus aid to poorer countries hard hit by the international trade embargo against Iraq.

Saudi Arabia has pledged $10 billion in cash and other support for the 300,000 American troops and for nations hurt by the embargo.

The 1991 cost of U.S. operations has been estimated at $30 billion.